[thucydides]

I’ve not seen anything explicitly about bikes, but Memorial Bridge will be closed to pedestrians (thus Metro is urging attendees not to go to Arlington Cemetery stop). If it’s closed to cars and walkers then surely it’s closed to bikes, too. The TR crossing may be a real scrum.

[thucydides]

Speaking of biking on highways and the consequent dangers. Here’s an awesome anecdote about a semi, a pickup, and a biker.

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@grandallj 60477 wrote:

Was he using his legs to signal his turns? Or am I trying to give the benefit of the doubt to an apparent lunatic?

Nope, he was using them as an outrigger or some such to help him turn. Maybe he’s watched too much motocross.

[thucydides]

Good, it’s not my imagination then. I had an extraordinary one the other day. He shoaled about 5 of us at Lynn St and then proceeded to have serious problems getting started as he was in the wrong gear (but was using regular pedals). So we all get bunched up behind him as he makes an incredibly dangerous pass between traffic. We get to GW Parkway bridge and — I kid you not — in order to make the left turn onto the bridge he has to stick his left leg way out. Past the bridge I pass him which apparently causes him some sort of Cat 6 meltdown and he jumps the curb and sprints to get past me again. At the end of the TR parking lot he sticks out his right leg to make the right turn and then his left to make the left. He’s poking along but by now I decided to not pass him again because I’m just laughing too hard to do it. He comes up on the MVT/TR ramp fork he and does the left leg thing again. Thankfully I was heading to the bridge.

It gives me pause to say he was not the most incompetent cyclist I’ve seen this month. That would be the guy on the Custis who turns like he’s on training wheels (as in turns the handlebars rather than lean the bike). To do this he arcs the bike way over into oncoming traffic, even on blind turns like the one under 66 near the Custis-WOD merge. Crazy cakes.

[thucydides]

@consularrider 60113 wrote:

Ok, who turned on the taps just as I wheeled the bike out this morning? :confused:

Not half a block from my house and splash. Interestingly I saw loads of runners on the WOD/Custis but almost no cyclists. (I guess some folks checked the weather.) There was some sort of running race going on the Custis — I guess it was a race as they had these homemade numbers on. Some of those ladies looked really displeased to be running in the rain.

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1. I personally think this is the best route. I come from the EFC neighborhood in Arlington and every once in a while I have to go to the Chinatown area and you described pretty much what I do. 14th requires going way south.

2. Hmmm. Always liked this stretch but I’ll think about what you’re saying next time I’m there.

3. Yeah,the FFX parkway trail is famously bad. I’ve biked several times via WOD onto Sunrise Valley, but only on weekends very early in the morning. My inclination is to say this is what you do (i.e., get off onto Sunrise where it crosses WOD), but that means taking the lane (there’s no shoulder at all as I recall). So it depends a whole lot on how you feel about dealing with that traffic. Going down Reston Pkwy puts you on Sunrise less but I’m not sure that’s any better than just going on Sunrise the whole way (which is surely shorter anyway).

4. I don’t know how you have your bike set up, but I’m a big advocate of bringing your lunch. It’s cheaper and generally better for you. But that may not be an option for you even if you overcome the lazy/shortsighted bit. Bringing your lunch adds weight but the Reston trip doesn’t have much in the way of hills. I started bringing my lunch every day about 10 years ago. I’m sure at this point I’ve saved thousands of dollars. That’s money for MORE BIKES.

[thucydides]

@baiskeli 59706 wrote:

Someone somewhere is saying the same thing about bicycles.

Absolutely, in fact I’ve got a quote somewhere around here from a then Fairfax transportation official who called bicycles a “menace” after some folks had the audacity to suggest that maybe bikes could ride on some of the Fairfax roads. So I’m always really self-conscious when saying things like that about other modes. But I make an exception for segways. They’re evil. Although, I’m sure Steve is right that they are also fun to ride. But they’re still evil., Everyone’s got to have their prejudices. One of mine is the segway,

[thucydides]

Segways are an abomination. E-bikes I don’t particularly mind but one reason I’m dubious about adjusting trail regulations to allow e-bikes is the possibility that it would also let in segways. Maybe I’m just being irrational, but I just loath those things. The meter maids and tourists in the District on them are a menace.

[thucydides]

@TwoWheelsDC 59679 wrote:

Maybe I’m a bit biased, because I ride the entire length of the Custis almost every day, but it seems to have the highest pass-calling rate of all the trails. I’d also wager that, due to its geography and location, it has the highest commuter ratio of any of the MUPs in the area, which I think might correlate with the high percentage of called passes. Would certainly be interesting to see some metrics on that, but I don’t expect that will happen. Until then, I unofficially dub the Custis “the Friendliest Trail in the DC Area.”

Funny. A while back I designed a little study that would track pass calling. I was going to do two trails — Custis & CCT — with varied days and times. I was also going to vary the “passees” in various ways, pushing a baby stroller being one. I don’t think it’s the sort of thing I can get funded since it doesn’t necessarily tie in with any major policy or theoretical issues. But I might still do it just for the fun and curiosity of it when I have some RAs between projects. I did a very mini version of this a while back [posted here]. My strong impression is commuters are more likely to call passes than non-commuters.

[thucydides]

@jrenaut 58206 wrote:

There are a million dangers to salmoning. The biggest of which is that cars turning onto the road on which you are salmoning may not check in your direction before turning. I almost hit a girl going the wrong way on 15th St NW because I didn’t check for someone coming down the bike lane the wrong way. I almost hit a guy at dusk right in front of my house because he was coming towards me with no lights on, wrong way on a one way street.

If you’re going to salmon a block because of some ridiculous traffic pattern on a non-busy street, I’m not going to fault you for it. Anywhere else and you’re a hazard to yourself and others.

Absolutely right. In fact I was just telling a kid yesterday not to salmon the bike lanes on John Marshall for exactly this reason. Drivers aren’t accustomed to looking for something coming the wrong way like that. Even if they look they may not “see” you because you’re not supposed to be there. The kid shrugged me off but I bet he remembers it next time.

[thucydides]

@KLizotte 57664 wrote:

Anybody else notice that George Carlin is using the wrong mathematical concept? He’s referring to median not average.

I know, I know…he’s referring to a population and not a sample thus a probable bell curve but I still say there is some unintended irony in the graphic.

I’m an economist – so shoot me!

Well, if you REALLY want to get pedantic about it then he’s actually correct, even without a normal distribution. A median is a type of average. In common usage people use the term “average” to refer to a mean, but common usage doesn’t negate the fact that a median is an average, as is a mode, as are the various flavors of means.

[thucydides]

I’ve never posted a picture before so we’ll see if this works.

Here’s the new Harrison Shops garage rack:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3277[/ATTACH]

While I’m at it, here’s the rack that’s now outside the shops (immediately West of HT):
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3278[/ATTACH]

[thucydides]

No but I’ll get one today. I have to be over there around 4.

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I’ve been meaning to get back to this topic. The end of school always throws my life into chaos. The Harrison shops added a decent serpentine rack to the parking garage. I don’t think many people know about it yet so it’s good to get the word out. I’ve got real mixed feelings about it, though. On the one hand it’s a substantial increase in parking and it’s covered. On the other hand, this area is hard to get to and actually rather dangerous to get to via bike. For those not familiar, the parking garage entrance/exit features a blind hill and a blind intersection (the latter is helped a bit by a mirror). You can avoid the hill by going beyond the garage entrance to a service lane, but a biker still faces riding into the blind intersection. Cars sometimes rocket out of the garage. I don’t have a problem going there but I won’t let my kids do it. As far as I know there is not another way to get to that garage via bike, i.e., you can’t go the north side of the complex and then come down the east side of the building. You can only reach the garage by going to the southside and then coming around to the eastside.

So I definitely applaud the garage rack. It’s a definite improvement but may not get used all that much. A bigger rack in the front would be a big improvement.

Of course, now that Kroger took over Harris Teeter, the traffic situation in Harrison shops may eventually improve substantially.

[thucydides]

The mind boggles. That’s just, wow. It’s like back when people would put a Rolls Royce hood on a Beetle.

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